BACK TO NEWSLETTER 2005 CONTENTS
Editorial
Last year there were a number of questions about the ‘mystery’ photograph on
the cover: it was, of course, Edward Ardizone at work.
The 2004 edition of the Newsletter was rightly criticised for not reflecting the
exploits of our younger members. Great efforts have been made to put this right
but again we have failed. However we have been able to reproduce much of the
HM’s speech-day report which gives a very positive account of the last school
year.
This year the Newsletter has continued to grow in content. Forty-eight pages are
about our maximum before we move into the next postal rate. So to keep down the
expenses we have had to reduce the length of a number of contributions (Hugh
Thompson’s expertise in this field has been invaluable) and the type size.
Sorry!
Although the news of Martin Cooke’s election to the HMC came through just before
the last Newsletter went to the printer, we could not report it as not all
parents had at that time been notified. It is a magnificent achievement and
reflects great credit on today’s Clayesmore: Pupils, recent OC's, Staff,
Administration, Ground Staff, Domestic Staff, Council and, of course Martin
Cooke, the Headmaster.
This Newsletter reflects only some of the activities of the past year but
illustrates that the OC Society is in a very healthy state.
The AGM changed Rule 3 so that the Society can offer membership to pupils of the
Prep School who did not move up to the Senior school. This has not been much of
an issue yet: should there be a prep school section - should italics be used for
prep school members who did not study at the senior school? Any suggestions for
the future will be gratefully received. There are added difficulties as there is
no register of students yet.
The President managed to persuade many of his year group to attend this year’s
Simpson’s Dinner A few years ago Hamish Dow (a former Head Boy) was able to
change the decline in attendance by making a massive effort to attract his
generation of leavers to meet at Simpson's. Subsequently we have tried to
persuade one person from each decade to muster a group. In 2005, the prize went
to David Anderson. Not only did he generate enough interest amongst his
contemporaries to form the largest year group at Simpson’s, but also a rival
group across the road at the Strand Palace!
This year, by publishing the lists for each decade of leavers ending in a ‘6 ’we
hope that we might persuade even more of you to join us in January. Why not ‘e’
mail, write to, or pick-up the phone and contact your fellow contemporary
Clayesmorians? We hope to see many of you at Simpson’s in January 2006 and will
of course seat you in your ‘year’ groups.
The lack of reports of OC days suggests a slightly dormant Society. This is far
from the case and it is good to hear that more and more younger OCs are becoming
involved in the sports fixtures. We are lucky to have recruited Vicki Brewis who
has managed to produce a number of Ladies’ sports teams. (Next year, they will
be clad in OC kit!). The marked renaissance in OC Days at Iwerne has been
brought about mainly by school sport interest. The Society is most grateful to
the Headmaster and the members of the school for the most generous hospitality
offered on these occasions. Detailed reports of events might help produce even
more of a response in the future. The Headmaster, for one, is delighted with the
growing support for the May gathering.
Sarah-Jane Kennard/Newland (OC) has recently taken
over as the OC/School liaison officer: This is a most important and difficult
position and I am sure we all wish her well. Hopefully she will be able to
persuade younger OC's to contribute to the next OC Newsletter as well as to
continue to support the sports events organised by the school.
Michael Phillips, our latest recruit to the committee, has, with help from John
Grant, managed to contact all OC's in Scotland and in the North of England and
he hopes that next year there will be the first Scottish OC Dinner in Edinburgh.
The website continues to grow and develop and is an inspired way of keeping up
to date with OC events.
There are plans afoot to slightly re-organise the OC Society in future years by
appointing ‘leaders’ for groups of years. More on that next year as plans gel.
Special thanks to Hugh Thompson for all his efforts, John Grant for saving so
much information for the WATN section throughout the year and being so willing
to produce countless lists from our ‘database’ (which he spends so many hours
updating and fine tuning), David Anderson and Robert Mash for proof reading, and
Mark Farrand for generating so much on the website.